There is most definitely a pay gap between male and female doctors. And even though it's true that female doctors work fewer hours than men, something else is happening here.

I am a female physician, and news last week that a Plano doctor was quoted in a magazine saying female doctors earn less than men because they don't work as hard didn't shock or surprise me. I've heard these ideas stated outright or alluded to by others at multiple points in my career.

What did surprise me is that the comments from Dr. Gary Tigges were published by the Dallas Medical Journal without context as to what is actually true regarding the gender pay gap in medicine.

First, there is most definitely a pay gap. A May report by Doximity surveying 65,000 physicians nationwide found female physicians earn an average of 27.7 percent less than their male counterparts. The pay gap persisted across all specialties and all regions of the country. Their findings confirm previous research published in Health Affairs and the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Second, it's true that female physicians work fewer hours per week than their male counterparts. This is in large part due to the increased number of hours female physicians with children spend per week on child care. While no one is advocating that female physicians should be paid for the hours of work they contribute to their families, we should continue to ask why the responsibilities for child care, housekeeping and elder care are frequently unequally distributed in families.

It would be easy to assume that female physicians working fewer hours explains the gender pay gap. The problem is that the studies controlled for hours worked, yet the gap persists. So even when women work as much or "as hard," we still are paid almost 30 percent less.

Another common explanation is that more women choose lower paying primary care specialties, but the gap persists within specialties. Still others assume it's because there is a larger number of young female physicians, so seniority and experience explain the gap, but the gap is present even for new physicians who have completed the same training programs at the same time. The pay gap also exists in all settings — private practice, hospital employment and academic medicine.

Dr. Tonya McDonald, left, a pediatrician at My Children's Clinic in South Dallas, performs a checkup on Angel Carranza, 2, as his mother, Griselda Rodriguez, holds him on Jan. 16, 2015.

(Rex C. Curry/Special Contributor)

Recent evidence from the Journal of the American Medical Association and the National Academy of Sciences actually shows that female physicians have better patient outcomes in many settings. So why do female physicians still make less than their male colleagues? Partly because we work in a system that rewards patient volume rather than patient outcomes, but that is changing.

As we move toward a system focused on value-based care, there is opportunity to reduce gender pay disparities among physicians. But first we must acknowledge when there are underlying reasons for the pay gap and correct them — fewer female leaders involved in hiring processes, assumptions about female physicians' future plans and family commitments, gender bias in promotion opportunities, unequal sharing of parenting responsibilities, and a lack of mentors to help women focus job searches and hone negotiation skills.

The Dallas County Medical Society said its goal in publishing the comments about the pay gap was to bring light to antiquated and inaccurate assumptions and promote a discussion about the gender pay gap in medicine. In that they were successful. This little blurb in a county medical journal has penetrated news outlets around the country and prompted the doctor to apologize.

But, as physicians, we need facts and evidence, not just opinions to further the discussion and help close the gender pay gap.

Valerie Borum Smith M.D. is a pediatrician in Tyler. She wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News.